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Oh so lobbying the EU comission to both slash CO2 targets and adding tolls to chinese EV cars did not actually make German auto manufacturers more competitive. Who would have thunk?
Yes I'm bitter how much influence the German car companies have over the union.
You're not alone. Several times already I've gotten into internet arguments over this.
"But they provide jobs!" is the usual rebuttal.
Well, they ain't doin' that any more, are they?
>"But they provide jobs!" is the usual rebuttal. Well, they ain't doin' that any more, are they?
People who support stuff like this, are unable to think 15 minutes past their own actions. They can't comprehend the negative externalities and second order effects of the policies they support. They easily get manipulated to just blindly support feel-good policies based on own-group tribalism, platitudes and vibes, especially the German voters.
Same like the crowd who thinks rent freeze is the solution to rising rents. They don't understand supply and demand, so they can't comprehend how this will lead to a massive housing disaster down the road, they just want frozen rents for themselves now, and 'after me, the flood'. Hell, people don't even understand how inflation works, they think prices increases just come from greed of business owners, they can't fathom how currency is being devalued by massive government money printing that inflates assets and devalues their labor. This is beyond their level of understanding.
When you work public facing service jobs, you realize just how stupid the average person is, so no wonder politicians and elites can rob us blind via laws and policies implemented with our own accord, while then having us blame each other and fight over sports-ball.
Sorry if I sound overly nihilistic, but this is my conclusion after so many years of human interactions on this planet. We get the leadership and outcome we deserve, nothing more, nothing less.
The job market all over the world is ultimately changing. Wars, AI, energy crisis, etc. — it’s a combination of factors. Yet, the article is too shallow, so it doesn’t clarify much.
The two examples are not really representative, “press spokesman at a small industry association” and entry-level “apprenticeship in marketing communications and a bachelor’s degree in international management”. I don’t want to say that they are completely bs jobs but, well, these are quite niche. Both seem to be only ‘affordable’ for a strong economy, not during an economic instability.
What I’d like to get answers to is why if everyone says about shortages of nurses, doctors, teachers, plumbers and other handymen, highly qualified engineers capable of making some complex stuff like rockets; I don’t really see any policy makers pushing to make such jobs more appealing, I don’t see people around talking about moving to any of such areas even if they struggle or lose their office/corporate jobs, or talking about their kids learning to do one of them
And here I have the same impression: there's a lot of talk and very little action (not nothing, just too little in comparison). An important source of problem identification talk is the opposition, which noticed that to criticize is very easy, it attracts attention and supporters, while actually FIXING things is a shitload of work and better leave it for the others. It reminds me of a recent read about Locard's exchange principle: every contact will bring something into the scene and leave with something from it, and the opposition cannot stand to be washed down by actually trying to fix something.
>And here I have the same impression: there's a lot of talk and very little action
Genuine question: What action were you expecting?
> What I’d like to get answers to is why if everyone says about shortages of nurses, doctors, teachers, plumbers and other handymen, highly qualified engineers capable of making some complex stuff like rockets; I don’t really see any policy makers pushing to make such jobs more appealing, I don’t see people around talking about moving to any of such areas even if they struggle or lose their office/corporate jobs, or talking about their kids learning to do one of them
I believe that the people in charge don't want to improve working conditions, but in fact want to increase hours, lower pay, and deregulate. So they complain about shortages (without mentioning "of people willing to accept those conditions") and push to lower standards.
And unfortunately they are able to get major media outlets to publish that message without questioning it.
(Also, there was a genuine nursing shortage for a while after Covid, because conditions were so bad a lot of people left the profession. People may still talk about that even though it has resolved now.)
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The article is low quality. It talks a bit about the problem, not about the cause and it does not help anyone.
The example at the beginning seems to be a now classic "I have a degree in an area where supply greatly exceeds demand". There is demand, there is supply, but there is a misalignment of qualifications and interests. If "well-qualified people" means fresh graduates in domains with low demand, then the qualification does not matter. In areas like constructions and handymen there is a serious shortage, if not a crisis, in the entire Western Europe. There are jobs, but not the ones most people want.
Too many people go to universities for a degree without checking if there is demand for these degree. Many that I know go to universities just to have a degree, they don't even care what is the domain. I have a childhood friend that is regularly unemployed, he is a historian, but he does not like working in archeological sites and there is not enough need for historians. At the same time we cannot find enough people for construction works, it is hard work and most people don't want it (diversity and equality does not work in such jobs, never did).
> Too many people go to universities for a degree without checking if there is demand for these degree.
I agree for certain fields such as your example but until recently software engineers were in disproportional demand and that has changed pretty dramatically in less time than one would need to get a degree in the field.
Edit: And the example of people working in construction: I know a few. Their companies are booked out for the next 2 years. They, however have shitty pay and disproportionately many work-caused health problems. The owners of those companies are having a good time though.
>They, however have shitty pay
A 24 year old friend works construction, building and restoring facades and such. Makes 70-80k Euros/year with his own schwarzgeld overtime outside of work. It's on par with a senior SW engineer with 10YOE here. Hard work indeed, but not poorly paid.
It's only poorly paid for unskilled positions in construction that are basically human carrying robots who haven't yet been automated.
>There are jobs, but not the ones most people want.
There is no such thing as a shortage in labor markets. There is just people not willing to pay the correct price.
I come from Eastern Europe. Teachers used to tell us that we had to go to university if we wanted to have an easier life later on.
Same for me; but what they did not tell, because it was not needed at that time, is that not everyone is capable of going to an university, the admission was tough and the school was hard, so people were filtered by capabilities. 20 years later universities doubled the number of students as they made it a business first, not education first, so we got too many people with worthless diploma and no qualifications and no potential.
We all got told this. The trouble is that it isn't always true. A good STEM degree could do, but so many others don't. Now we're seeing the slow death of some of the professions, and it's started with accountancy.
I dunno man, people are complaining about not being able to secure a vocational training position, especially as a foreigner. Maybe a bit of diversity and equality could help
A friend of mine went to Berlin to learn German. She's Spanish of Moroccan Berber origin... She said she encountered barely any native speakers, and many people tried to speak English to her instead. She ended up quitting as a result. I was in part of suburban Frankfurt am Main and had a similar experience. So depending on where you are, there is plenty of diversity. Like most larger European cities, Frankfurt and Berlin now lack sense of place while having a sense of anomie.
Migrants to Germany account for 30.2% of the total population.
Is Germany not enough diverse for you?
> , he is a historian, but he does not like working in archeological sites
Most historians who work as historians dont work in archeological sites, so I dont see how that part is relevant.
> In areas like constructions and handymen there is a serious shortage, if not a crisis, in the entire Western Europe. There are jobs, but not the ones most people want.
Are salaries going up?
> it is hard work and most people don't want it (diversity and equality does not work in such jobs, never did)
Like, you mean, immigrants wont be accepted if they apply? Cause wherever I was, these low level jobs were exactly the jobs where immigrants went first - they would hire literally almost anyone as they were not picky on language knowledge, cultural knowledge or even skills. All they asked for was time and ability to accept low salary with not too great conditions.
But, if they wont accept immigrants on principle, the inability to find workers is their own problem. Native Germans has obviously more options.
And what happens with high demand and low supply?
Strangely the wages don’t rise as one would expect.
And companies are picky, they want a perfect fit for their position including the work processes and programs.
Delusional.
Are you sure the wages don't rise in high demand, low supply areas? We all just read the 7 figure salaries for people in AI stolen from one big company to another, what is that?
Yes, companies are picky, but it is slowly changing. They cannot afford to be picky anymore, but change takes time.
Jokes on FT, we have both
I am not so sure we really have or had both. Maybe for roles like electrician and tiler and such. But for roles like teachers, I feel it is not the case, or policy makers are extremely stupid here. The hurdles for someone to become a teacher without having studied that are still very high. It doesn't seem like policies a nation would implement, if they really wanted more teachers. For example you need to have 500h of base level pedagogy training (which would be OK) and of course you need to be very knowledgeable in the subject you want to teach (also makes sense), but that's not enough, no, they want, that usually after 3 years you teach 2 subjects, not only the one you are knowledgeable in. So you are expected to either have sufficient knowledge (lectures at university count towards that, but may well not be sufficient) in a second subject, or to somehow catch up on that.
In my case, I did consider becoming a teacher for IT stuff. Not really "IT", as pupils would first learn the basics of course, and the really interesting stuff might not even fit into the curriculum, but I could well imagine teaching what I know and maybe even establishing an extracurricular computer programming club or something. I would feel great passing on my knowledge. But what second subject to teach? ... The only other applicable thing I had in some amount during my studies is ... math. Ugh. You telling me I might have to take additional math lectures, with people who study to become math teachers?! No friggin way man. Also am not a native English speaker, and while I use English every day all day long, I don't think I have the detailed knowledge to teach it responsibly to students, unless they are total beginners, but I won't be teaching IT stuff in primary school, now will I.
If you stick to only one subject, perhaps they will tolerate you, but your salary will forever be a reduced one, even if you work the same hours, just because you only do one subject, and no matter how much of an expert you are.
When it comes to IT/software engineering I don't think there ever was a shortage. Just businesses, implementing big tech hiring processes for their tiny startups and then playing surprised pikachu, that they are "not finding talent".
In comparison, Switzerland recognized the problems in the education system and... I know somebody, former construction foreman, now working as a primary school teacher - also doing some pedagogy courses in parallel. Is this better? Probably better than nothing, although far from ideal. But, would it be smarter to just wait, waist deep in the dumpster, for ideal solutions?
Berlin has recently solved teacher shortage by cutting positions. Saxony pushes for stripping teachers of a privileged civil servant status, because who needs teachers when we don't have children anyway. I don't think Germany has a shortage here really, especially as birth rates are falling even further
I imagine the doctors situation is the same. Also the houses situation.
> It doesn't seem like policies a nation would implement, if they really wanted more teachers.
Aren't those hurdles put in by teachers' unions to ensure they maintain a leverage over their jobs market? Same is for doctors, notaries, etc in a lot of countries.
"We" refers to Germany?
Fachkräftemangel is just a joke, you know. There are enough Fachkräfte for everything.
One could reasonably have expected much worse than "just" automotive and energy intensive sectors in crisis in Germany.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Trump administration actively shrinking the economic cake worldwide. Its active economic and cultural warfare against Europe. Nothing to sneeze at.
Germany and by extension the EU have shown remarkable resilience for now. The question what will happen next should an actual crisis follow. Don't be surprised should Europe further integrate its capital markets and defense to some extent.
Carmakers in Germany has a bit of blame for not moving quickly enough, but China hogging materials doesn't help.
The chemical sector hit though feels more self-inflicted by the government that closed down nuclear plants to rely on Russian gas. The annoying part (Nordstream unrelated) is that they didn't see it fit to put a brake on the nuclear decomissioning already in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine first.
You forgot about the energy crisis: Nord Stream for one.
There was never a labor shortage, just a shortage of pay from unscrupulous employers being addicted to cheap labor.
Luckily they’ve brought in plenty of people eager to sacrifice short term being exploited for long term exploiting others.
FT is four years late to this.
Isn't German economy strongly tied to performance of its car manufactures? Them being out competed might started about 3-4 years ago but the impact on other sectors would take some time.
Creating an ever-larger union makes goods cheap(er) by moving jobs out of expensive markets.
Surprised?
Germany went from labour shortage to hiring freezes in like two to three years. This has nothing to do with unions, which have been on a long downward slope for decades. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1356608/trade-unions-ger...
Stop watching Fox News.
Germany was one of the prototypes for the European Union in my view. I'm not talking about violent expansion but the Zollverein and other similar processes which united Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria with a number of other Länder.
Shame on the workers who want their share from the work they did, poor shareholders, all their hard work for nothing. /s
Unions in Germany have less power than in France for instance. The rights to strike are more restrictive